ZOLOFT, MEDIATION,WEANING and TETHER....

[Guest guest]

Hey guys,

I have been pretty busy and stressed so I haven't been

online and when I did finally get near the computer I

ended up erasing all my saved messages.....you know it

is going to be a bad night when....!

Yes I did it I am on Zoloft, I have to wait for it to

kick in but I am on it. 5 days. I weaned my little

sweetie....she was 23mths old. It was a sweet ending,

she went on and off for a few days so I called it

quits.....we had a weening send off/party....I put

some music on and talked to her and cried...it was

sad. I didn't want to but it was time. But I have lost

the one thing Autism couldn't take away.(sniff)

Lately she has really got the short end of the stick

but that is a whole different story. Feeling lots of

guilt cause she can't have or do so many things

because of my limitations with Ben.

<big sigh>

Well Bens IEP went as expected....nothing ugly

happened just they didn't give me what I wanted so I

called in the state mediator. Want to know a

secret...I found out when you call the state for a

mediator the take your info IE: School, district and

so on right....and the assign you one. Well what I

also found out is that in the whole state of CA our

school district is the only one with a " permante "

mediator...in the whole state....how many school

districts are there????

This is what they were offering us for Ben.....

Full Inclusion with a " classroom aide " ...yes I know

not 1 to 1 aide.....can we say " MEDIATION " ?

Speech didn't change 2x a week for 20 mins.

OT 1 our a week.

Oh ya ESY with a " classroom aide " .

Needless to say not happy about it. We pushed for full

in clusion but after touring the class and finding out

at the high point of the day there would 30-36

students in there with the " classroom aide " That was a

laugh. No way no how, Ben is not going there. I will

keep him home first. One of our stipulations(we go in

with our own list of demands and suggestions) was the

aide would be trained/have work experience with

autistic children.....they won't guarnantee it there

we are signing. Two really funny things were said to

me...

1st....IEP meeting.... " Oh the aide will learn from

the teacher " this is the same teacher who teaches

kindergarten and who isn't trained in " Autism " ...so

the aide will learn what????

2nd...Met one of the teachers....she may or may not be

Ben's teacher in the fall ....it is all decide in

Aug...she says to me... " Oh I had a child once with a

disablity and I had handle bars put in the

bathroom " ....ok and this woman was told I was coming

by to see the class room...I just stared at her and

thought.... " Hmmm handle bars huh? Ya he could use them

to climb to the top shelf and get down the soap " .....

It freaked me out and made me realize these people

have no clue what Autism is.

Good news is that Ben is on the intake progress for

Stars school ....you know ABILLS and Mark

Sundberg(SP)...I toured the school and liked it alot.

So I am crossing my fingers that he gets in for SEPT

if not the boy is staying home with me.

ESY doesn't look any better ....2 hrs a day with a

trained assistant and the ratio is 20:1...glorified

day care I think is the term here. I am going to check

it out but again if they are not trained with Autism

they aren't getting my child.

So there is what is new....kind of down cause me and

hubby have been fighting about this and nothing at all

cause we are so stressed with having to read up on

laws ~ treatment ~ mediation ~ touring schools.....

man this can be hard on a marriage. But we love each

other and things are better.

Tether .....ok you wise ladies.....my good friend lent

me her Tether and I love it......I need one but the

store she bought it from is closed so I am hoping you

can help.....it looks like this.....there is a strap

around my waist and a seperate strap around his waist.

We are connected by a strap that has a circle metal

piece on his end and one my end so he can run around

me with out tripping any one.. Make sense???

So here is my sorrid tale. I sure hope this zoloft

kicks in soon.

Thanks for letting me ramble.

Thats it!

=====

TTFN

Wife to

Mom to Ben (aka Gozilla) 5yrs HFA/AS

On call milk machine to Abby(aka ....stinkerbell) 21MTHS NT

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